Chaplains at War: The role of clergymen during World War II
Alan Robinson
FIELD MARSHAL Montgomery once remarked: “I would as soon think of going into battle without my artillery as without my chaplains.” His words of praise were echoed by many senior army officers, as shown by Alan Robinson in his exhaustively researched account of the role of chaplains during the Second World War.
The great merit of his book is that it covers all denominations, and discusses the way in which the practices of Anglican chaplains (who came mostly from professional families) differed from those of Roman Catholics and Nonconformists. RC chaplains, for instance, devoted themselves exclusively to their priestly duties, whereas the others also undertook massive amounts of welfare work.
Robinson’s most absorbing passages concern the part played by chaplains on the front line. Their final duty before going into action was to conduct pre-battle services to reassure the troops. The particular difficulty facing the chaplains was to determine an appropriate context for such services: it mirrored the uncertainty of the civilian Church on such issues as praying for victory.
A future Chaplain-General, F. L. Hughes, urged chaplains to make it clear in their sermons that God was on Britain’s side. Hughes claimed that his policy was linked to the soldiers’ circumstances. “The padre’s way to an army’s heart is through the conviction that religion assists its fighting.” Hughes, whose appointment had been backed by Montgomery, later moderated his attitude in the face of Archbishop Temple’s opposition to bellicose prayers for victory.
The war advanced the cause of the ecumenical movement, in that their experiences in the front line convinced many chaplains of the irrelevance of denominational squabbles. They would have preferred to minister to the wounded regardless of denomination, but felt inhibited by doctrinal differences.
The Church Times, however, was concerned about the interdenominational instruction during Padre’s Hours. “He who would find Christ”, the paper thundered, “must find him in the Church he instituted.”
Robinson’s book had its origin in a Ph.D. thesis, and is inevitably academic in tone, but he finds room for the occasional lighter touch. He quotes the case of Lady Laura Eastaugh, who was 28 when she applied in 1943 to become a chaplain’s assistant. She held a Lambeth diploma in theology, but, in the opinion of the authorities, needed to familiarise herself with the “seamier” side of life. As a result, she worked for six months as a welfare worker in Liverpool.
Subsequently, during one Padre’s Hour, a woman argued with her so vehemently that she spat out her false teeth. And one RC chaplain told his flock that they should avoid Lady Laura, as she was a “very dangerous woman”.
Robinson’s style is workmanlike rather than elegant. It is a pity, though, that he was not provided with an editor to iron out his grammatical infelicities and correct his punctuation. It is also a pity that his publishers should issue a £50-plus hardback not only with a woefully inadequate index and without a single illustration, but should even deny it the dignity of a dust cover.
Dr Bernard Palmer is a former editor of the Church Times.